After ICE Separated These Husbands Forcefully A Judge Wants Answers
 |
| Jonathan Blanco Gallegos and Elias Perez-Zuazo at their 2024 wedding. | Screenshot / WRC-TV |
 |
| He met Marrero in 2023, got married, and they began the process to validate his immigration status. In the U.S., if your spouse is a citizen, you can become a lawful permanent resident (get a Green Card) if eligible. In 2024, nearly 150,000 people became citizens through marriage, according to the U.S. Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services. (Pix11) |
Jonathan Blanco Gallegos has not slept in the same bed as his husband, Elias Perez-Zuazo, for over a month.
“My bed is empty. He’s not in there. He’s not cooking anymore for me,” Blanco Gallegos told local NBC affiliate WRC-TV recently. “My heart is broken.” The Washington, D.C.-based couple’s lives were torn apart on December 10 when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Perez-Zuazo during what was expected to be a routine annual check-in at an ICE facility in Chantilly, Virginia.
While Blanco Gallegos is a U.S. citizen, Perez-Zuazo is undocumented. Originally from Panama, Perez-Zuazo entered the U.S. at the Texas/Mexico border in November 2021. After being processed by authorities, Perez-Zuazo was released and allowed to live with a sponsor in Washington D.C. There, he met Blanco Gallegos, and the two married in February 2024. Since then, they have pursued a Green Card for Perez-Zuazo. His I-130 petition — the first step for a U.S. citizen like Blanco Gallegos to sponsor a spouse for a Green Card — was approved.
That process came to an abrupt halt in December however, when Perez-Zuazo reported for his annual check-in with ICE. As The New York Times reported this week, under the Trump administration, federal agents have arrested thousands of people showing up for such routine immigration appointments and court hearings. Immigrant rights advocates say the tactic has effectively turned a mandatory part of the legal immigration process into a trap.
Blanco Gallegos told WRC that he knew something was wrong when Perez-Zuazo’s December 10 appointment — which normally takes 45 minutes — stretched on for several hours. Eventually, an ICE agent found Blanco Gallegos in the facility’s parking lot, handed over his husband’s personal belongings, and informed him that Perez-Zuazo had been detained. According to Blanco Gallegos, ICE provided no explanation or paperwork for his husband’s detention.
In a statement provided to WRC, ICE claimed that Perez-Zuazo had “illegally crossed the border in November 2021 and was RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration.” Perez-Zuazo, the statement continued, had “received full due process and was ordered removed by an immigration judge in November 2021 and was RELEASED into this country by the Biden administration. This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”
Perez-Zuazo’s attorney denies that an immigration judge has issued a deportation order and WRC reports that it was unable to verify whether such an order was issued. Perez-Zuazo’s attorney says that if a judge had ordered his client’s deportation, it would have happened already.
Meanwhile, as The Advocate notes, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia has barred ICE from removing Perez-Zuazo from the judicial district pending further court order.
Judge Anthony Trenga also found that “the factual circumstances and legal issues” in Perez-Zuazo’s case are “materially identical” to other recent cases challenging ICE detentions. Judge Trenga ordered the U.S. Justice Department to prove how Perez-Zuazo’s case differs from previous cases by last Friday at 5 p.m.
Comments